


Open your eyes, Travel the skies

by natacup82



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Space, Amnesty, Gen, WIP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 04:02:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2837351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natacup82/pseuds/natacup82
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teen Wolf Space AU</p><p>
  <i>Derek glares, “Okay one, I haven’t believed in space hobo’s since I was seven-”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Open your eyes, Travel the skies

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this at pullthroughs sometime in 2013 but have no memory why I thought it was a good idea to put werewolves in space. I do remember being very passionate about the idea of them being able to escape the whole wolf thing when they're on planets with different moon cycles. 
> 
> Anyway, this will never be finished. I think I was trying to make it not Gen but the story didn't want to do that and I stopped writing it. Hopefully it's still enjoyable in this unfinished state.

_wake me up shake me up_  
race me to the stars  
to much to know so far to go  
the galaxy is ours 

_Prologue_

Laura laughs for ten minutes straight when Derek takes her to see the _Alpha_. Derek tries not to take it personally. 

“You’re not serious right?” Laura asks, doubled over trying to catch her breathe. 

Derek crossed his arms, “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a good ship.” He’s tagged along enough with her to know what to look for in a ship.

“It’s a piece of shit that’s going to break up during re-entry and you will burn to death.” She straightened up and pointed at the ship, “Derek this is a death trap. Space hobo’s would not take a ride on this thing.”

Derek glares, “Okay one, I haven’t believed in space hobo’s since I was seven-”

“Not the point, Der-bear.”

Derek points at her, “No more interruptions,” and Laura raises her hands and her eyebrows, zips her lips and makes a carry on gesture at Derek. 

“And two, I’ve already taken it offworld and done an orbit of that moon near Beacon Hills. It’s safe. Just because it’s not as flashy as your _Camaro_ doesn’t mean it’s not good.” Derek refuses to get defensive just because Laura is being _Laura_.

Laura sighs, “Fine, but I still think this is a terrible idea. You could just come out with me. It’d be safer.”

“Since when do you need me to protect you?” Derek asks confused. 

“I meant safer for you little brother,” Laura pats his cheek and laughs when Derek ducks away.

Derek scowls and starts walking up the road toward the house, “If you’re done now I need to go pack.” Derek is more than capable of taking care of himself, just because he’s sixteen and has never been off world alone doesn’t make him a child. 

Laura catches up with him and loops her arm through his, “Lead on,” and then she leans closer to Derek, “We can meet up on the New York colony in a couple of months and you can tell me about your adventures.”

Derek smiles and says, “Okay.”

He doesn’t see his sister again for six years. 

***  
 **Seven years later**

Derek has been slowly drifting back toward the Western quadrant for the last week, taking a meandering route even though every instinct is telling him to burn out his engine to get there immediately. 

Laura hasn't answered a ship to ship call in three days, hasn't sent Derek a video of cats being weird in a week and it's weird. He's trying not to freak out but the last time Laura went radio silent it hadn't ended well.

_  
Derek is in a bar off the Northern moon of Nova Scotia pretending that this isn't his first time having a beer outside of a basement when his parents were out of town when his comm starts buzzing against his thigh._

_He almost doesn't answer it, thinks that it's probably his mom calling to nag him to stick closer to home, to stay off planets with moon cycles that mimic Earth, to do his laundry when he gets the chance. But there's something, some gut feeling that makes Derek drop a few bills on the bar then get up and walk outside to answer the call._

_"This is Derek," Derek says flipping open the comm and squinting down at the tiny video screen. He hopes that this year his parents finally get the hint about getting him something bigger for Christmas._

_"Are you in flight?" Laura asks, her voice sounds harsh and from the little bit of her face Derek can see her makeup is smeared._

_"No, but-" Derek starts before Laura cuts him off._

_"Get in flight and call me back in ten minutes," Laura says before signing off._

_Laura has been bossing him around for as long as Derek can remember but this seems different, seems off in some way that Derek can't figure out._

_Derek runs back to his ship and is in atmo and plotting a course toward home within five minutes. When the nine minute mark hits the screen in the cockpit lights up with a video call._

_Derek thumbs the answer button and starts to ask what's going on before Laura's face fills the screen. Her hair is a mess, there are smudges on her face and her eyes are red._

_Laura starts talking as soon as she focuses on Derek, "Change course, don't head anywhere near the California system. Don't tell me where you're going and don't land on any planet that requires you file a flight plan before you can leave surface."_

_"Okay. What's going on?" Derek asks turning to type in a new destination. "You're freaking me out."_

_"There was a fire," Laura says, laughing, this broken wretched laugh that doesn't sound anything like her. "Mom was -, there were no." Laura stops, "Mom and Dad didn't make it Derek. Nobody made it. They're all just gone."_

_"I don't understand," Derek says, his voice breaks a little and he hates that, hates that he sounds weak but this is not real. "We have a fire suppressant system in the house, and the hospital has regen systems in place. This is stupid."_

_Laura glares at him and says, "This is reality. Someone hacked the systems at our house, tampered with the locks and set the house on fire while our entire family was inside. Mom was holding a meeting, every adult Hale in the solar system was there. Almost all of their children were there. And someone murdered them. And they would have murdered us if Mom hadn't told us we didn't need to come home for this." Laura stops and takes a breath, "You need to stay as far away from home as possible. Don't contact anyone who knows our family, don't tell anyone where you're going, even me. Is that clear?"_

_"We should stick together," Derek says. He doesn't say what he means, doesn't say 'I don't want to be alone' because he's a Hale and they are stronger than that, they have to be._

_"We should stay alive," Laura says sighing. "I want to keep you safe little brother and that means we stay apart, okay?"_

_"Okay."_

Derek stops off on Riverside to fuel up and try comming Laura again. She's still not answering but the tracker indicates her ship is on this planet and Derek is not leaving until he finds out why.

Beacon Hills is three hours away on the other side of the planet but it still feels way too close. 

He doesn't linger at the service station, he gets fuel and enough supplies to last if he has to take off at a run and gets back in the air and on the way to Beacon Hills.

Derek is so distracted, so worried that he doesn't notice he's not alone on his ship until he's thirty minutes out from Beacon Hills.

***

All at once Derek is a aware not being alone and for a second it freaks him out.

Just under the hum of the engines, under the various ambient noises that let him know he's flying safely there's a sound. It's faint enough to let him know he's not in immediate danger up on the bridge, but it's unmistakably a heartbeat.

It always takes a little while for him to adjust to being able to do these things, to hear things he shouldn't, to smell things that most people can't. To have teeth that are too pointy and eyes that are too sharp, to have fur and claws, things that would get him banned from more planets than he wants to count.

Derek knows that once he gets off of this planet, once he gets out of this _system_ he'll be not _fine_ exactly but back to as close to what other people consider normal as he ever gets. He won't feel the ache of knowing his pack is gone, won't be hyper aware of the phases of a moon that's close but not quite exactly like Earth.

But while he's this close he's stronger, faster, ,i>lonelier but better equipped to deal with whoever thought it was a good idea to stowaway on his ship.

Derek takes the ship up higher, high enough that he it can sit without the autopilot dropping him in Beacon Hills where anyone could spot him and makes his way down to the cargo bay.

He follow the sound of the heartbeat, down past the engine room. Derek stops to make sure whoever this jackass is hasn't tampered with his engines and then keeps heading down. He doesn't see anything, no sign that anyone has been on board, no sign that they've touched things but there's a smell that lingers on the air.

It smells like fear and desperation and Derek let's his claws out in case that desperation turns violent.

Derek stands in the middle of the floor of the cargo bay and says, "You are trespassing on the private spacecraft listed as the _Alpha_ ," he turns eyeing each of the storage hatches, "If you come out peacefully I will drop you off near a comm station somewhere between here and my final destination."

He smiles, "If you don't cooperate I will open the loading hatch and drop you out where we are now, which is several hundred feet above the ground. You have thirty seconds, your call."

One of the hatches in the floor opens up and a voice shouts up, "I'm coming out, please don't hurt me." The guy who climbs out is a kid, probably not older than Derek was when he was last on this planet.

Derek retracts his claws before the kid can spot them and asks, "Did you think it was a good idea to hitch a ride on a ship without permission? Because I've seen people get hurt for less."

The kid shrugs, "I've been hurt plenty. I figured it was worth the risk to get away from- to get the hell off this planet, find a job on a ship somewhere."

"You picked the wrong ship for that, I'm heading toward Beacon Hills," Derek says and watches as the kid flinches. "What's your name?"

"Isaac," the kid says looking at the floor, "And if you could let me off wherever we are now I'll get out of your way. I just, I can't go back there."

Derek crosses his arms, "Why?" Derek stares at him trying to will Issac to meet his eyes.

Isaac doesn't look up, "It's not safe there. For me. And every day I was there was just me playing Russian Roulette with my life, it's not worth it to have a place to live."

Derek sighs, he really doesn't have to time get involved in whatever the hell this is but he doesn't want to leave some kid in the middle of nowhere on a planet this size. The fear is real he can smell it rolling off Isaac in waves. and he remembers what that was like, running because he couldn't do anything else. He can't imagine having to do that without a ship of his own.

"What can you do?" Derek asks, already kind of regretting what he's about to do.

Isaac looks up, "I used to do all of the cooking and cleaning after my mom left. I figured most people are out in the black looking for adventure and they don't think too far ahead about learning to cook."

"Fine, you're hired for the time being or at least until you find something better once we get out of the California system," Derek says.

He ignores the way Isaac is smiling at him because he is not a nice person, he just knows what it's like.

***

They land on the outer edge of the Hale family property, staying clear of the more public landing areas that Derek used when he first got the _Alpha_. 

It's the first time Derek's been back here since before the fire and seeing what's left of is a shock.The grounds were always full of activity at this time of year, cousins running around in the woods, aunts and uncles laughing and drinking. It was full of life, and now it's quiet, empty and lifeless. 

The walls of the house are still standing, almost looking like it's still home except for the vines growing up the sides and the blown out windows. But the roof has caved in and the front door is off the hinges, nothing fixed in the years since the fire and the last of the Hale's scattered to the wind. 

Derek knows their uncle Peter is out there somewhere, hunting whoever did this to their family. He knows a few of their older cousins are out there somewhere but he hasn't seen or heard from anyone but Laura since the night of the fire and by the looks of the grounds no one has set foot in Beacon Hills since.

He walks into town, trying not to look out of place. There are only a few ships at the public landing pads and it only takes Derek ten minutes to find Laura's ship there, at the end. 

A deputy is standing out in front of it talking to two kids. Derek veers left toward the coffee shop and focuses in on what they're saying. 

"...I just want to know if they really found an alien body up on the preserve, okay? My dad won't get mad at you if you just tell me yes or no."

The deputy sighs, sounding annoyed, "Kid, the preserve is a public place. If you want to go up there and piss off the sheriff it's your funeral. Now get out of here."

The kids start walking off and Derek turns his back to them as they pass by, still listening.

"Scott, we have to go up there," the kid with the buzzcut that's been doing most of the talking says.

Derek looks over as the other kid, Scott, frowns, "I don't think I need to see a dead body, Stiles. Even if it is an alien."

"Where's your sense of adventure? I bet Allison would think it was cool that you went to look. Those Argent's seem like they're all about checking out random acts of violence."

Derek doesn't hear the rest of what they say, doesn't hear what they agree to do because he knows that name and if the Argent's are back on Riverside it doesn't mean anything good for him or Laura. 

Derek storms up the ramp and straight up to the cockpit not stopping until he was strapped in and starting pre-flight. 

Isaac pops his head in as Derek finishes up and asks, "Problem?"

"No, we're leaving now. Strap in." 

Isaac straps in to the co-pilot's seat and Derek side eye's him for a second and says, "If you're going to ride up here make yourself useful and start looking up news reports for Beacon Hills and the Riverside moon preserve."

"Okay," Isaac says pulling up a news feed, "Am I looking for anything specific? Because I was in town until a week ago and there was nothing going on."

Derek rolls his eyes, "Look for weird animal attacks, strange noises, any deaths that might not be natural. Anything that's happened since the Argent's moved to town."

Isaac looks over at him, "Those people with the garage full of weapons?"

"Have you been to their house?" Derek asks starting to regret letting this kid on his ship. He might be a plant to get his guard down so those so called hunters could wipe out the rest of the Hale's. 

Isaac shakes his head, "No, but my dad tried to buy something from them and I overheard someone talking about it in the locker room. He was trying to date that guy's daughter and it freaked him out. That family is a little intense."

"That family is dangerous and I'm putting as much distance as possible between me and them."

"There are no reports of animal attacks out of Beacon Hills but there's something weird on the preserve. A body, not human but it says it's a known alien species but they don't name it," Isaac says reading off the screen. "And there's a ship that was abandoned in town but the computer system is locked so they haven't been able to ID to the owner."

Derek nods and says, "Anything else?", as they climb out of the atmosphere toward space. 

Isaac nods, "Yeah they have a bulletin for people to contact them if they know the owner of the ship, also it looks like you're getting a ship to ship call."

Derek thumbs the answer button and says, "Full Screen," when it doesn't auto-expand. Laura's face fills the screen. 

"Hey kid," Laura says not making eye contact with the camera. "This is a recording because I'm not sure how this is going to turn out." She looks down and Derek's heart drops. He wishes he was alone, that whatever terrible thing that happens to their family next wasn't happening in front of an audience.

"If you got this that means you've been near my ship and haven't found me." She pauses for a moment. "I found a tracking device on my ship, I'm not sure how long it's been there but I've been a little lax with my rational paranoia lately," Laura says laughing. "I'm going to lead this douchebag to Beacon Hills and try to hitch a ride out on another ship. If you don't hear from me stay the hell away from the California system, stay out of the west and check your damn ship."

Laura sighs, running a hand through her hair, something she's always done when she was nervous, "I don't know who's trying to track me but we both know it's nothing good. I've set my ship to send you info for Uncle Peter and cousin Kasey. Don't trust Peter too much he's still a dick."

Derek laughs, a little but he's not really amused. This is worse than the fire because at least back then he didn't know what it was like to lose everything. 

Laura is still talking. "I'll contact you when it's safe, when I'm safe. Stay out of trouble," Laura says and then she signs off. 

Derek stares ahead for a few minutes not doing anything. Peter will want to do something dangerous and Kasey, Derek has no idea what she'd want to do, he didn't even know she was one of the cousins that managed to not die.

"Are you okay?" Isaac asks looking over at Derek. 

Derek doesn't meet his eyes, he doesn't need pity from anybody. "I'm fine," Derek says, typing in new coordinates and turning on the autopilot. "We're heading toward Chicago, I need my guy to check over the ship."

Isaac frowns, "Should we wait that long? You're uh.." Isaac pauses for a second.

"Sister." Derek says glaring at him.

Isaac nods, "Right, your sister made it seem like maybe we should check before we get there?"

Derek nods, "No you're right. We'll do a sweep deck by deck, room by room. And then I'll let Boyd do a bigger check when we get to Chicago."

Derek stands up, "Let's do this."

***

They finish the sweep just as they're breaking atmo above Chicago and so far they haven't found anything odd. Plenty of signs that Derek needs to clean his ship but nothing that make him think he's being followed. 

He heads back up to the bridge and comms Boyd to ask for clearance to land on his family property.

Boyd's voice comes through clearly although there's no video to go along with it, "You're cleared to land at dock two. Try not to hit anything on your way down," before it cuts out.

Derek rolls his eyes but is careful on the landing. One time he grazed something landing here and Boyd and his grandfather have never let him live it down. It's ridiculous.

Derek pops his head into the room Isaac's picked for himself and says, "We're going to be here awhile, let one of the Boyd's know if you leave the ship," and keeps on walking.

Boyd Sr meets him at the ramp, squinting at him as he descends the ramp.

"You look like shit kid," he says squinting up at Derek. "I'm pretty sure I told you to stay the hell out of trouble the last time you dropped by."

Derek shrugs, "I did, my sister didn't. I think. She said she found a tracking device on her ship, can you check me out?"

"Yeah, I'll let Vernon handle it. That tech is more his speed," Boyd Sr. says looking past Derek, "You taking on passengers now or something?"

Derek turns around and sees Isaac heading down the ramp. "No, temporary crew."

Boyd Sr. raises an eyebrow, "Any reason you're taking on teenage crew? They tend to not go far from home."

"Like I said, temporary, " Derek says sighing. "How long is this going to take? I want to be farther away from Beacon Hills."

"Hard to say," Boyd Sr. says, shrugging and then he yells, "Vernon! I need you out here."

A kid comes walking out of the office, he's much taller and broader than he was the last time Derek was here.

"I'm here, stop yelling." He says, stopping short to look at Derek's ship. "How is that thing still flight capable? I told you last time you were here I don't have time to rebuild your engines." Vernon glares at Derek.

Derek rolls his eyes, "I just need an intensive sweep for trackers and bugs. Don't be a dick about it Vernon."

"You keep calling me that and I'll make sure you can't even take off," he says pushing past Derek muttering about rusty pieces of crap.

 

***  
"How do you live like this?" Boyd asks, leaning over whatever part of the engine he has open. "This is literally a death trap. It's stunning that you haven't shaken apart in re-entry yet."

"It's been fine for the last six years." Derek replies banging his head on the wall.

Boyd snorts, "Because your sister gave you my grandfather's name as a good shop for this thing. If he wasn't gluing this mess back together every six months you'd be dead by now." Boyd pauses, "Also there's a broken tracking device in here but it looks like your shitty engine damaged it enough that it can't connect to send a signal."

Derek looks up, "Can you figure out where the signal was supposed to be going?"

"No, but I know a guy who knows a guy."

Derek snorts, "That sounds promising." Boyd Sr. knew his mom when she was in college here but that doesn't mean the kid knows anything.

Boyd looks up at Derek, "I might be younger than you but I've been working alongside my grandfather since I was ten. When I say I know a guy, I know a guy."

"Fine, where is he?" Derek asks. At this point he's desperate enough to find Laura or the people putting her in danger to do this. 

"Beacon Hills-" Boyd starts but Derek cuts him off.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Derek asks, pissed. That is the absolute last place he needs to be right now.

Boyd rolls his eyes, and says, "Both guys are on the lacrosse team. Which travels. They have a game in a week on that stupid sports complex moon off Colorado. I can make arrangements for you to meet him then."

"Fine." Derek growls, this feels like a mistake but most of his instincts have been wrong lately. Maybe it's time to follow someone else's. 

Boyd nods, "Good, because it's going to take almost that long for me to get this shitbag ready to fly."

"Don't talk about my ship like that," Derek replies automatically. He's had this conversation with every damn person who's ever taken a look at it.

Boyd snorts, "Then don't fly it into the ground." Boyd squats down to look at some new thing about the engine that's pissing him off, "And hire a damn live in engineer and shut the hell up, I've got work to do."

And then he gets to work.

***

They take off five days later, heavy enough supplies to last at least a month and a Boyd. Derek doesn't get why he needs to come along on this meet with this guy who knows a guy but he's too worried about Laura to fight him.

"We need to land on the edge of the woods, there should be enough cover for the ship but enough clearance to take off in a hurry," Boyd says leaning over Derek as he keys in coordinates.

Isaac raises an eyebrow and asks, "Is there a good chance we'll have to leave in a hurry?" He'd taken to riding in the cockpit while Boyd was doing flight testing and doesn't seem to be growing out of it. It's annoying.

"Didn't you have to leave Beacon Hills in a hurry? You two didn't even just clear the city, you left the planet," Boyd laughs, "With that kind of track record I figured better safe than sorry.

"Which I would appreciate more," Derek says, glaring, "If you gave up some more information on your guy or the guy he knows. The more I say this the dumber it sounds."

Boyd sighs, "I know you have severe trust issues but I know what I'm doing. Stilinski, that's my guy, can always get you what you need or find the person who can."

"How?" Derek asks, eyes narrowing. That name sounds familiar, like something he'd heard somewhere a long time ago.

"His dad is the law in Beacon Hills and he's smart, nosy and disrespectful of boundaries. Stiles has picked up some stuff along the way."

Isaac laughs, "Stiles Stilinski is your guy? Are you serious? They don't even let him start for the lacrosse team."

Boyd looks at Isaac, hard, "And you're a runaway who's been reported missing. And I'm a big quiet kid who helps out with little things at his grandfather's shop. Don't trust your first impression, it's usually wrong."

"Is this kid operating some sort of high school criminal underworld or something?" Derek asks, because he vaguely remembers Sheriff Stilinski and didn't seem like the type of person to react well to his kid ending up in jail. Derek doesn't want to be connected to these people when this shit blows up in their faces.

Boyd laughs, "No, he's more like. He's a fixer. You have a problem, he finds you a solution. If it's a dumb problem he will call you stupid. And if he doesn't like you he just won't take the job."

"Um," Isaac says looking at Derek and raising an eyebrow.

"What?" Derek asks, he's not going to get defensive here. He's a very likeable person.

"Don't worry about it, he owes me a favor so Derek can be as much of a dick as he wants."

Derek glares and yells, "I'm not a dick!"

"Dude have you met you?" Boyd asks, face serious. "You don't go out of your way to not be a dick."

***  
They touch down mid-way through the game, letting the cheers of the crowd drown out the sound of the engines. Isaac wanders down to the galley to work on dinner and Derek turns toward Boyd and raises an eyebrow. He still needs to know how this whole thing is going to work, vague is not something he can afford when Laura might be in trouble.

Boyd rolls his eyes and says, "Okay so here's how this is going to work. The game should be wrapping up in the next hour and Stilinski, McCall and his tech guy are going to come over and give you an estimate on when they can get your information and how much it will cost you."

"What you mean when they can get the information? I don't have time to dick around with a bunch of teenagers for days on end Boyd.

Boyd huffs. "Oh calm down. I know you enjoy pretending you're from the 21st century but the future," Boyd says using finger quotes, "that those old movies always talked about is now, the longest he's ever taken to get data was 24 hours."

"I still don't like this," Derek says crossing his arms. There are too many maybes and should be's here for him to be comfortable. 

"And yet, here we are," Boyd said checking the time. "And you've killed enough time for us to lower the damn ramp and wait for them to show."

They don't have to wait long. The ramp has been down for ten minutes when three kids walk up, still in their lacrosse gear. 

Even with all of the modifications Boyd has been forcing Derek to make the ship can't do a fully automatically take off so he sends Isaac up to the bridge when he spots them. Just because Boyd thinks he can trust these people doesn't mean Derek is going to risk their lives. He's survived too long to get ambushed by teenagers and Boyd's grandfather would skin him alive if anything happened to his grandson.

They step into the light coming off the ramp and Derek remembers why the name seemed familiar. These are the kids who were trying to find out if a body was found on the Riverside moon preserve. 

Derek narrows his eyes at them already annoyed that they're going to waste his time. 

"Long time no see Boyd," the one with the buzz cut, the one Derek is pretty sure is Stiles, says. 

"Well only one of us has been restricted from leaving a planet," Boyd says laughing. 

The other two guys laugh with him while the Stiles kid gets a disgruntled look on my face. 

"It was only for a month!" Stiles says pointing at Boyd, "And it was your damn fault for not disabling the GPS on the jeep."

"You didn't ask me to disable the GPS. It's not my fault you underestimated your dad."

"He's right you know," the other kid Derek saw at the Beacon Hills public landing says. Derek thinks his name was Scott. 

Stiles throws his hands up. "Everybody is freaking against me," he says and then points at Derek and says, "You got anything to pile on?"

"Nope." Derek replies. He has no interest in wading into whatever teenage high school bullshit they're talking about. All he wants is to know where that signal was going and find out if it has anything to do with Laura. 

"Good, I like you better than these other assholes already," Stiles says and then he claps his hands, "Let's do this."

At a look from Boyd, Derek lets them onto the ship to discuss payment and time frame. It's not what he would want to do but it's what he can do for now. 

Stiles points to the taller kid who hasn't said anything yet, "This is Danny and Scott." 

Danny offers a salute and a smirk. Scott gives a head nod and a, "Hey."

"Derek Hale." Derek says unsmiling.

Scott looks at Stiles when he hears Derek's last name and they have some sort of silent conversation with their eyebrows for a minute.

Derek's not surprised that people from Beacon Hill's would react that way, he's seen some of the news reports from after the fire, he know s what people have assumed about his family.

"Anyway. Danny is my favorite tech guru and normally," Stiles pauses to look around the cargo bay making a face, "I would think you would not be able to afford his going rate. But I owe Boyd a favor so one time only we've got a flat fee a thousand bucks."

Derek raises an eyebrow at that. He's getting really sick of people shitting on his ship and making assumptions about him.

"And if he can't get me the information I need?" Derek asks. He turns to Danny and says, "No offense but this is important to me."

"None taken, I like it better when people underestimate me," Danny says with a smile.

Stiles huffs, "Danny stop flirting, this is business. And in the very unlikely event that we can't get you what you need? Half price and I owe you a favor. Take it or leave it."

"Fine," Derek says, counting to 100 in his head. He thrusts the broken tracker at Danny, "I need to know where the signal on this was supposed to be going and I need it in a format that's compatible with my ship navigation."

Danny takes the tracker and plops down on the floor, pulling a laptop out of his bag. "What nav system do you use?" He asks looking up at Derek.

Derek has no fucking idea, he's pretty sure he has whatever was standard when the _Alpha_ was built. He looks at Boyd.

Boyd rolls his eyes, "I just put in a custom NS-23 system, it mimics the old DS-10 when scanned by unauthorized ships."

"Nice, I should be able to back into that from here. This tracker doesn't seem that complicated which is probably why it malfunctioned," Danny says looking back at the screen.

"What kind of time frame are we looking at here?" Stiles asks, crouching down to see Danny's computer screen. "Finstock will probably leave us if we're not back to the shuttle on time."

"I've already isolated the signal, just give me a min-oh shit," Danny says cutting himself off.

Derek looks down at him, fists clenched at his sides and hisses,"Oh shit what?"

"Oh shit this thing just started pinging on it's own," Danny says typing fast. "Whoever made this tracker built in a failsafe in case it was tampered with.There, I've got the end point for the signal, your ship nave should have it now. "

Derek starts to respond when his comm buzzes in his pocket. It's Isaac up on the bridge. "What?" Derek asks annoyed. He doesn't have time for any other distractions.

"So the lacrosse shuttle just left and a new ship is clearing atmo about 10 miles west of here. Projected flight path shows them headed straight for us and that they are armed."

Derek looks over at Boyd, "One of your improvements?"

"You’re welcome. We need to ditch that tracker and get the hell out of here. Now."

Danny tosses the tracker to Derek and Derek throws it out of the still open ramp. "Okay kids, time for you to get out," Derek says trying to steer them down the ramp.

"Dude," Scott says looking at him. "Our ride just left."

"And we haven't gotten paid," Stiles adds.

"Also didn't your pilot just mention people with guns coming toward us right now?" Danny adds, standing firm.

Derek looks at Boyd to back him up but gets a head shake. "They're right, we can't leave them here Derek."

Derek closes his eyes for a moment then grinds out, "Fine. Strap in we're getting the hell off this planet," and stomps up to the bridge.

***

The flight off of Colorado was tense, everyone poised for something to happen. 

Once they broke atmo they followed a caravan of commercial transport ships headed east. Boyd monitored traffic off of Colorado and they all held their breath. 

"There are a three ships breaking atmo off the planet near our last location," Boyd said checking a readout. He typed in something, a series of commands Derek couldn't recognize and said, "I've set our comm chatter to mimic what's happening with this caravan. Hopefully they buy it and follow that faked flight plan."

They fly, staying quiet until the caravan veers toward the Texas settlements and Boyd confirms that they're in the clear. 

"They haven't been in range of our scanners since we entered the New Mexico territory. I think we're in the clear for now."

"Where are we going now?" Isaac asks, not looking up from the news feed scrolling across his screen. 

"Yes, where are we going?" Stiles asks from the doorway.

Derek, Isaac and Boyd turn around at the interruption. For a while Derek had forgotten that other people were still on board. 

Stiles raises his eyebrows when they don't answer immediately, "Guys, I really need an idea of where we're heading so I can at least attempt a convincing lie for my dad."

Derek turns to Isaac and asks, "Where did the signal come from?"

"It says Saint Pierre Miquelon. It's in Canadian space," Isaac says reading from the file Danny forwarded.

Derek looks at Stiles and says,"That's where we're heading. We'll keep following this group until they land on Texas and then we'll head..." he gives Isaac a questioning look, he doesn't know where in Canada they're going. 

"East, it's near Newfoundland."

Stiles claps his hands, "All right then Anne Shirley, so I guess we're going to Canada."

Derek glares at him, "No we're going to Canada. You and your two friends are getting dropped off as soon as we can find a port with transport back to Beacon Hills."

"Whoa dude we just ran away from dudes with armed ships, we're not leaving until this is done," Stiles says laughing. 

"No, you're going to get off my ship and go home. Me and my crew can handle whatever is waiting for us."

Stiles looks at Derek and then at Boyd raising an eyebrow and making a face. Derek can't see what face Boyd makes back but Stiles raises his hands and says, "Okay clearly this is a bad time to talk logically with you so I'm gonna go comm my dad. Come find me when you're done being a dumbass."

And then he walks out. 

Derek yells after him, "That won't happen!" and then turns to Boyd, "Was there seriously no one else that could help us?"

Boyd shrugs laughing, "Sorry man, Stiles is the best. And dropping them before we know what we're up against is dumb."

"It's not, they're a liability," Derek says glaring at him. He's not freaking shuttle service. 

"It is. If those guys who were tracking you get to them before they get back home we're screwed. They'll know we know where they're heading and they'll know for sure that you found the tracker," Boyd says like it's the most logical thing in the world. "Plus if anything happens to Stiles his father will track you down and kill you. Better to keep him close where you can make sure he's safe."

Derek looks at him sideways and says, "This is the dumbest situation I've ever been in. Now I'm taking on passengers and working as a bodyguard?" 

Boyd shrugs. Derek looks at Isaac and he shrugs too. "At least he didn't make a comment about me needing to go back too? Small mercies right man?" Isaac says with a smile. 

"I hate both of you so, so much," Derek says folding his arms and closing his eyes.

Boyd pats him on the shoulder, "I know buddy, I know."

***

At Boyd's direction they take a meandering course through the southern planets, stopping for fuel, _briefly_ on one of the planets in the Alabama system before veering toward the northern planets. Derek let's Boyd lead a second sweep of the ship for trackers before they break atmo, just in case. 

They don't find anything and nothing comes up on the scanner Danny's thrown together while they've been in space. Derek is still on edge, still paranoid; things have been too quiet.

"We need to stop for supplies," Isaac says walking out of the kitchen. 

They're almost in the Ohio system, maybe two days out from Canadian territory if they stop wasting time and Derek scowls at him. They don't have time for random pit stops. 

"There's plenty of food and water on this ship," Derek say pointing down at the bowl of, he's hesitant to call it soup, that Isaac set in front of him a few minutes ago. 

"There was plenty of food for a trip as far as the California system for three, maybe four people," Boyd says taking the seat across from Derek. "But we took on three extra people, two of whom are actual athletes and they eat. A lot."

Derek raises an eyebrow, "You two wanted to let them stay on the ship until we finished this, I was fine with dropping them off somewhere."

"You know," Stiles says, suddenly stepping through the doorway, "I'm going to start to take it personally if you're always talking about throwing me off your ship every time I enter a room."

"Good, you and your people don't need to get comfortable," Derek says ignoring the eye rolling from Boyd. 

Stiles laughs. "You're all charm buddy," Stiles says dropping into the seat next to Derek. "And we do need to stop. Me, Scott and Danny are going to need to wear something other than sweats and uniforms at some point."

Boyd sniffs and says, "You are getting a little rank."

"If you assholes weren't so stingy with the water supply we'd smell like roses right now," Stiles replies glaring at Boyd. 

Boyd holds up his hands, "It's either you three use our limited water to wash or we all have water to drink. We'd need to up our supply, plus you can just take a damn sonic."

Stiles waves a hand, "Sonic showers are bullshit.Ooh invisible shower, now I really feel clean."

Derek laughs and the coughs to try to cover it. He doesn't want Stiles thinking he agrees with him even if he does think sonic showers are dumb.

Derek looks up at Isaac and Boyd, "We'll stop at one of the rest stop ports on Ohio. Stock up enough to cover all of us plus extra just in case. Okay?"

Boyd and Isaac nod and Derek nods at them. One more stop and then he'll finally have some answers. 

***  
They land on Ohio mid-afternoon, in what should be a mid-week mid-day rush but it's quiet. There are people around, ships docked but there's something that just feels off to Derek. 

He trades looks with Boyd as they walk down the ramp, looking around and then raising an eyebrow in his direction. 

"Yeah man this is fucking weird. We need to move fast and get the hell out of here," Boyd says. He grabs Isaac by the wrist and says, "Come on kid, the sooner we pick up, the sooner we can load," and pulls him toward the supply center. Scott bounds down the ramp and follows them and for once Derek's glad to have the extra hands on ship. The more people they have to load, the faster they leave. 

Derek had been to more rest stops on more planets than he wanted to think about and generally they just made him sad. There was no place in the universe he felt more alone, surrounded by people all rushing off to see family and friends while he was just rushing to nowhere. 

Most fly over planet rest stops were set up the same. They have supply centers in the middle with everything a ship could need as they're making their way across the galaxy, a fueling station off somewhere out on the far end of the property, a sit down restaurant off the supply center for people that didn't want to eat on ship and a small, usually gross hotel with showers with running luke warm water and soap that barely foamed. 

Still, the familiarity was good. It made it easier for Derek to watch for things out of place, for whatever shoe was about to drop. 

Derek doesn't turn as someone else walks down the ramp, just keeps an eye out for whatever the hell is going to happen.

"I sent Danny up to the bridge," Stiles says stopping next to Derek.

Derek turns to look at him and raises an eyebrow and says, "Last time I checked you weren't a part of my crew."

"Yeah well, last time I checked this rest stop is fucking creepy and we needed someone up there just in case we need to leave fast."

"I thought me and Boyd were being paranoid. But there's something off about this place," Derek says turning back to look out at the grounds. 

Stiles snorts and says, "I'm glad we finally agree on things. There's something seriously off about this place. And people keep looking at the ship, it's freaking me out."

Derek focuses on the people and they do keep glancing at the ship, it's weird. "Go keep watch at the top of the ramp, I'm missing things down here," Derek says. And then he says quietly, "I'd be able to hear to tell if these people were dangerous if this stupid planet had a moon cycle."

"What?" Stiles says looking at Derek. 

"I need eyes at a different level, go."

"No, I got that," Stiles says squinting at Derek, "But what the hell does the moon cycle have to do with anything?"

Derek glares at him and says, "I turn into the hulk. Seriously not important right now. I need your eyes up higher." Derek pauses for a second and says, "Please."

"Fine, but I'm bringing this up again later buddy," Stiles says pointing a finger at Derek as he heads back up the ramp. 

Derek starts to reply when his mobile comm buzzes. "Boyd how long is this going to take?" Derek asks when Boyd's face pops up on the little screen.

"We've got five hover carts full and an issue. Be prepared to load up and take off quick," Boyd says, voice low. 

"Danny's on the bridge, we'll take off as soon as you're back on board."

Boyd nods, "Good because there is some weird shit happening on this planet and we need to go fast." Boyd clicks off before Derek can ask a question and when he looks up he sees Boyd, Scott and Isaac pushing four hover carts toward the ship. 

Behind them a blond girl is pushing what Derek assumes is the fifth, they're barely halfway to the ship when all hell breaks loose. 

***

Derek doesn't hear the shot. 

One minute he's sees Boyd, Isaac and Scott and lets out the breathe he's been holding and the next he's on his back looking up at Stiles. 

For a second he can't hear anything, he can see Stiles lips moving but no sound is coming out. Then sound rushes back in all at once, Stiles yelling at everybody to run and at Danny to get ready to take off immediately. He can hear Boyd yelling at Isaac and Scott to take cover near the supplies, to run. He can hear someone screaming. 

Derek tries to sit up and pain blooms in his shoulder. He grinds his teeth, get's up and runs down the ramp toward the person closest to the ship: Isaac. 

"Come on, you need to get to the ramp," Derek yells over the sound of pulse gun blasts and something that sounds an awful lot like old fashioned revolvers. His left arm is throbbing, blood dripping down, down the back of his neck and making his shirt stick to his skin. He keeps getting distracted, focusing on how annoying the sticky shirt is going to be even though he can't feel anything other than pain and panic that they're all still in danger. 

He spots Boyd and Scott crouched behind a tipped over hover cart. It looks like three out of the five made it onto the ramp before the shooting really got started and for once Derek is glad to have paid the extra for supply transport.

Derek runs, crouched over to Scott and Boyd and looks back in time to see Isaac make it up the ramp before collapsing. 

His comm buzzes and Stiles pops up frantic and yelling, "You three assholes need to get up this ramp and on board now. And Scott if you die I'm going to kill you," before cutting out. 

Derek looks up at Scott and Boyd and notices that they're leaning over the girl that was helping with the last cart. Derek doesn't see any blood on her so that's one less thing to worry about. 

"We need to make a run for it, now!" Derek yells.

"Are you shot?" Scott asks looking at Derek's shoulder. 

Derek looks down at his shoulder, it's still bleeding but not as heavily as before. He barely even notices the pain. "Only a little bit," Derek says, "If you can all run for 10 seconds then we can make it. Ready?"

Scott nods and looks at Boyd and the girl. The girl swallows and nods and Boyd looks at Derek and says, "Let's do this."

And then they run. There's a burst of gunfire from the ramp of the _Alpha_ pointed at whoever is still firing at them and then they're safely up the ramp and someone hits the command to raise the ramp. 

"Danny get us the hell out of here," Stiles says, yelling into the internal comm and Derek can feel the little bump as they lift off. 

"Is everyone okay?" Derek asks breathing heavy. The adrenaline is wearing off and his shoulder worse than before. 

"Isaac has a bullet in his leg and you have one in your shoulder. And we have no doctors on this ship but hey nobody is dead yet so yay us," Stiles says glaring at Derek. 

Derek nods, "Good, good," then he turns to Boyd, "You know where I need to go right?" At Boyd's quiet, "Yeah I'll go up and have Danny set a course."

"Okay good," Derek says and then he passes out.

***  
Derek wakes up to a stinging cheek and blurry vision. He blinks a few times and the person in front of him solidifies into Stiles. "Did you _slap_ me? Derek asks, frowning at the rasp in his voice.

"Did you _slap_ me?" Derek asks frowning at Stiles. 

"Yes!" Stiles says pointing at Derek. His eyes are wide and his has gone high, "Because you are bleeding from the fucking head and you just passed out. And you probably have a concussion!"

Derek reaches a hand back to touch his hair and it feels tacky and wet, he doesn't have to look to know it's blood. 

"Oh, thanks," Derek says. The room looks shaky, blurry and Derek hopes that they're in range soon. He's not sure he's going to make it healing like a human. 

Stiles lets out a breath and says, "You're welcome. Now tell Boyd we need to stop at an emergency outpost immediately."

"No," Derek says, leaning back and closing his eyes. It's too bright, too loud and he just needs a few minutes of dark and quiet until they're back in an Earth moon cycle.

Stiles throws his hands up and yells, "What do you mean _no_? You have a bullet in your shoulder and a massive head wound. Isaac has a hole in his leg! Both of you need more than freshman first aid." 

Derek looks over at Isaac. Scott is bandaging the leg but Isaac still looks like he's in pain. 

Stiles runs a hand through his hair, "What the hell is wro-"

"Um, I don't. I don't feel so good," the girl says before collapsing. Derek had forgotten they'd come back with an extra person and he doesn't remember anyone saying her name. 

Scott and Stiles run over to her and try to get her up off the floor.

"Oh shit," Scott says, running over to her. "Come on Erica, please don't be dead."

Stiles looks at him and says, "Is she?"

Scott shakes his head, and says, "No, but her pulse is weak. Here help me," and then they turn her onto her side and Derek doesn't know what they see but Stiles goes pale and Scott looks angry. 

"Is she okay? What's going on?" Derek asks, words slurring. He can barely focus on them but he doesn't want anyone else dying because of him. 

Scott looks over at Derek, frowns and says, "She's-" and then he cuts himself off as they all jerk toward the floor. "What now?" he says, trying to keep Erica from rolling onto her back.

"We're entering atmo now, everybody hang onto something," Boyd says over the ship wide comm. Derek doesn't remember having him fix that but they need it now. 

"Oh thank god," Stiles says, then he lurches up toward the comm link in the loading bay. 

Derek can hear him start to yell into it but he only understands snatches of it and then they break through atmo and Derek closes his eyes as his body starts healing.

He can hear everything now, the engines winding down as they get closer to the surface, two heart beats in the cockpit, four more in the room with him. 

Derek blocks out everything and focuses on his shoulder first, gritting his teeth as the skin on shoulder knits back together. It takes no time for the head wound to close and then he's sitting up and focusing on the rest of the ship.

Boyd and Danny are back in the cargo hold and now that Derek can focus he know they've landed and everyone is yelling. 

"You could have maybe given a fucking heads up that we were dealing with werewolves," Stiles says, yelling at Boyd. 

"Dude," Scott says, raising an eyebrow at Stiles. He's got the girl, Erica's,head in his lap. Derek focuses on her heartbeat and frowns, it's racing and her breathe seems too shallow.

Stiles waves a hand at Scott and says, "Obviously I didn't mean you. You're good, this jackass has people trying to kill him."

Derek sits up, rolls his neck and says, "Glad to know getting shot is my fault."

Stiles recoils at the sound of Derek's voice and points at him and says, "God, we're gonna put a bell on you or something."

"Are you done healing?" Scott asks, laying Erica down on the floor, "Because we need to get Erica to a hospital right now. It's- it's bad."

Derek nods and says, "Yeah I'm done. Is there anywhere we could go that won't ask questions we can't answer? Because I'm not seeing any emergency options here."

"That doesn't matter since she's going to freaking die if we don't get to a doctor. And I'm sure Isaac isn't overly fond of losing his leg," Stiles says butting in. 

Isaac looks up at Stiles, "I'm not going to lose my leg." he says, "I just need a better pain killer and more bandages."

"We have another option," Derek says looking at Scott. 

"What? No. You can't do that to her," Scott says glaring at Derek. 

Derek sighed, "You just said she might die, you can hear what's happening with her heart rate."

"It's too dangerous!" Scott yells, "How can you even consider that an option?"

Stiles looks at Boyd, who shrugs and then looks between Scott and Derek before asking, "Do you two want to tell us what the hell you're talking about."

"Derek wants to bite Erica instead of finding a hospital," Scott says, still glaring at Derek.

Stiles stares at Derek and blurts out, "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

Derek glares at him, "We're out of options here."

"Because everybody survives getting bitten by werewolves? Because the people who were shooting at us had absolutely nothing do to with you being you? Dude come on!" Stiles says throwing his hands up and pacing across the room. 

"Does it hurt?" Isaac asks, looking at Derek. He's sweating, getting paler by the minute and Derek can see that the bleeding is not stopping. 

"Yes," Derek says not bothering to sugar coat it. "But we're hard to kill and you wouldn't bleed out from regular bullets like you are now."

Isaac nods and says, "Okay, do it."

"Are you serious?" Stiles says. He's staring at Isaac like he's lost his mind. 

Scott says, "You know you don't have to do this right? We can go to a hospital outpost."

Isaac laughs and says, "I know but I can't really feel my leg anymore and I need to be able to run." Then he looks at Derek, nods and says, "Do it, please."

Derek is up and across the room before Scott or Stiles can say anything else. He pushes Isaac flat on his back, lifts up his shirt and bites into the fleshy skin at his side.


End file.
